Complexity of the Text: Story of a patient by A.Kakhkhor

Abstract

The concept of text complexity has been one of the most significant subjects of investigation in linguistics, discourse analysis, and educational studies. It explores the interplay of linguistic structure, semantic depth, and cognitive processing that determines how difficult a text is to read and understand. This paper examines text complexity from the perspectives of Douglas Biber (1988), Michael Halliday (1994), and Timothy Shanahan (2012). Each of these scholars contributes a unique framework for understanding the linguistic and cognitive dimensions of textual difficulty. The study highlights the multidimensional nature of complexity, including lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects, and discusses its implications for language learning and pedagogy. In this research, Abdulla Qahhar’s short story “Patient (Between the Devil and the Deep Sea)” is analyzed through the Flesch–Kincaid readability formula to determine its linguistic complexity and readability level.